


Death's Embrace

by feathertail



Series: Antigone [1]
Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Angst, Antigone AU, Antigone!Davey, Haemon!Jack, I saw Pulitzer as Jack's father but it doesn't make it into the fic so read it either way, M/M, Suicide, You don't need to know Antigone don't worry, dystopia au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-09
Updated: 2017-11-09
Packaged: 2019-01-31 06:50:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12676605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feathertail/pseuds/feathertail
Summary: When Davey breaks the king's law and is sentenced to death, Jack pleads with his father to let his lover go. Before the sentence can be carried out, urgent news arrives...





	Death's Embrace

**Author's Note:**

> I saw a dystopian version of Antigone recently and Haemon's pain for Antigone was just so poignant for me... gah. You don't need to have seen Antigone to read and understand this!
> 
> If you have trigger warnings for suicide or gore/violence, I put them in the end notes so I can be explicit without spoiling it! Stay safe x

Jack did not like his father. He did not acknowledge him, talk to him, and he most certainly did not _beg_ him for anything.

 

Except for now.

 

Now the love of his life was locked up, sentenced to death, for treason that was against a stupid rule his father had created and enforced with ridiculous strictness. For god's sake, why does wanting to bury your sibling and refusing to 'repent your sins' mean a _death_ _sentence_?

 

And Jack was now not only acknowledging his father, but talking to him, and begging him.

"Father, please. You have to let Davey go. He hasn't done anything wrong, for Christ's sake!" he pleaded, inches away from grabbing his father and shaking him to try to knock some sense into him. But he restrained, knowing that might just get him and Davey into more trouble.

"Jack, I cannot just make exceptions to rules just because you're in _love_ with the boy," came the sharp, dismissive reply. "You can fall in love again. Maybe this time with someone whose family is not _utterly_ disreputable and despised."

Jack could feel his eyes welling up in utter desperation. "Father, please. I _love_ him. I can't lose him. I can't find another person. Davey's all I have, _please_ , Father," he begged, tears brimming. And as soon as one fell, his cheeks were flooded in saltwater, streaming down his face in pure anguish. 

 

"He broke the law, Jack. And that treason is punishable by death. I will make no exception." And with a sharp turn, his father departed. As the door shut, a messenger slid to a stop outside to address his king; Jack ran to the door to listen too. 

"My king- there has been a... problem with the prisoner. An unforseen action by his own hand."

 

Jack's stomach turned. "Davey-" he choked, and pushed past the messenger, feet carrying him down the many steps to the lower levels, stumbling many times as he struggled to see through the blinding fire of his tears. "No, Davey, please, no," he begged, though he didn't know to whom he addressed his supplication. 

 

At the entrance to the cells, he shoved past the guard, who admittedly didn't resist him, and sprinted to his lover's cell. His blood froze at what he saw, and a wordless, primal howl of utter despair frothed from his lips. He went to grab for the  bars, the door, anything to get at Davey, to be with him, but the forcefield surrounding the electric fence repelled him. He was about to try again, and would never stop, when a wiry arm caught him around the waist. He fought against it, only beginning to slow in his frantic snatches at Davey when his cousin's voice reached him through the ringing in his ears. 

"Let me open the door for you, Jack. Jack, c'mon. Let me open the door for you." 

 

And only for the length of time it took Race to scan his card and open the door did Jack stand still, vibrating with sobs. And then he was in, cradling Davey's face in his hands, weeping and wailing as he clutched his lover's body to his chest, face contorted in his anguish, rocking back and forth.

 

And then there were hands on him, not Davey's hands, not Race's hands, his father's, and he snapped. With a roar of fury, he pushed his father back, drawing his dagger from his belt, and, clutching it in both fists, raised it above his head, tears still rivers pouring from his eyes. He froze, some part of him revelling in the terror he caught in his father's gaze. But then his arms were making their blow, not at his father, but to embed his blade in his own stomach.

 

Not waiting to see his father's reaction, or Race's, or anyone else's, he turned and staggered back towards Davey, blade falling from his blood-slicked grasp. His thumb stroked softly across his lover's cheekbone, leaving a macabre trail of his life's blood as he contorted with the pain. 

"Gonna be with you soon, Davey," he mumbled, blood bubbling at his lips as he coughed harshly. He could hear Race yelling, but it all seemed a long way away, as he slid down to hug Davey one last time before being encouraged into another's embrace; he greeted Death willingly.

**Author's Note:**

> Davey's death is self-inflicted but left open as to how he dies.
> 
> Jack stabs himself after going at his father (never actually harms him), blood is mentioned on a few occasions, on his hands, him coughing it up, and transferring onto Davey's face.


End file.
